Ken Bondy and Gary Powell are
old friends and, in another life, used to be brothers-in-law. Both are
retired, Gary from a long career in international trade, Ken as a structural
engineer. Gary lives with his wife Sharon and their labradoodle Paddy
in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Ken lives with his wife Pam in Bell Canyon, California. They have been diving and
taking underwater pictures in Morro Bay for more than thirty years.
They have dived all over the world; both consider the old North T-Pier
in Morro Bay to be one of the best "muck dives" anywhere.
Under its creaky wood deck, on a silty sand bottom, an amazing number
of animals, vertebrates and invertebrates, live out their lives in and
on an eclectic collection of man-made junk, stalking their prey from
beer bottles, PVC pipes, toilets, tires, old engine blocks, boomboxes,
whatever we humans have discarded over the years. The animals living
in this junk are some of the most beautiful and bizarre creatures in
the world, and the ecosystem under this pier is a living treasure.
Both photographers use housed digital SLR cameras,
although a few of the older images in the Galleries were made with
film cameras (Velvia slides). Gary uses a Nikon D200 camera in an
Aquatica housing with Ikelite DS-51 strobes, Ken uses a Fuji S2 Pro
camera in a Subal housing with Sea & Sea YS-110 strobes. Both use Nikon
60mm and 105mm lenses.
(Photo by Polly Curtis)
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